Seventy Two Years
by Samuel Ocean
Summary: In the year 1991, Edward had long since given up hope of returning to Amestris. FMA/HP crossover. Oneshot. Drabble.


**A/N: Spur of the moment oneshot/drabble written as I finally finished watching the entire FMA series. Haven't seen CoS yet, so this fic is AU in regards to that. Unbeta'd, and may or may not make sense. **

**Disclaimer: Do not own the rights to FMA or HP.**

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Seventy-two years. Seventy-two long, wasted years.

Edward had long since given up hope of returning to Amestris. He constantly wondered if it would be worth it to try to go back at his current age. Everyone he knew and love… by now, they'd be long dead and gone. Hoenheim had finally died in the fifties… And then the others, who often came to his mind when he contemplated how their lives had played out. Who he paid his respects to every year, so as not to forget them… Izumi, Winry, Pinako, Rose, Hawkeye, Roy… Nina… Hughes… Al… How he wondered how they died, whether or not Mustang made sure Hughes' death had not been in vain, whether Shao Tucker had ever fully recreated Nina in his madness. How Al had died.

He spent years working on rocketry… wasted. It was the worst, in the first several years when he worked along side or saw people he knew on the other side of the gate; like driving a hot knife into his chest. Eventually though, he moved away. Moved on. And as time went by, those he recognized died.

Ed had aged, slowly but surely. He sure as hell didn't look ninety-two, he chuckled to himself as he looked in the mirror every morning. The mirror often agreed with him. Loudly. There was something about this section of the world… His 'magic,' they called it, slowed the aging process of normal humans. He was rather relieved… he couldn't help but be reminded of the homunculi, of his father and Dante… how they had tried to prevent their own mortality.

Of course, magic or not, he was still surprised that it was normal here for 'people like him' to live well past 150 years of age. He sure as hell never thought he'd live to be ninety-two, much less a hundred and fifty.

It was by complete accident that he discovered the Wizarding World. But he did find it and it rekindled a hope in him that he had not felt for years. Magic reminded him of alchemy and he worked hard to figure out exactly how it worked… Mostly because the first time he saw a cat turned into a tea cozy, he was forever banned from that particular shop after assaulting the individual who did it.

And when he discovered the amount of souls remaining in the natural world… ghosts, poltergeists, pictures, items…

He supposed magic was based the same way alchemy received it's energy: human lives from the opposite side of the gate. Which would only make sense of course, as humans were always dying on both sides of the gate. But the way it was controlled… the energy had to come from the individual as well. He knew that wizards just had more access to the gate, to the Truth, within themselves than the 'muggles' they cohabited the world with.

He was hell-bent on researching, feeling as if he was fifteen again in the libraries of Amestris. At the same time, a sense of hopelessness filled him, as he knew he was only doing such as a way to pass the time. So he wouldn't die knowing that he lost. That he failed.

Thus, his research led him to find the existence of alchemy is this side of the gate. Different from the alchemy from where he was from, but alchemy nonetheless. And with it, he found of Nicolas Flamel. And with Flamel, the Philosopher's Stone of this world.

At first, he was terrified that the creation of the Philospher's Stone was the same as his world. But further consultation with an associate of Flamel's had confirmed that the stone was one of a kind and while Flamel was not going to make another one, the 'current' Philospher's stone did not require human lives. But it did, however, hold great power, power unknown.

Which lead Edward Elric to Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore, who was perhaps the battiest man he had ever met, gave him a job at the boarding school before Edward had even handed the older man the application. His main reason for applying to Hogwarts, as he told the headmaster, was that he wanted to teach a class that would provide him with plenty of research resources to pass the time aid the young minds of the wizarding world.

Of course, the Philospher's Stone contained within the walls of the school had nothing to do with it.

Nope, nothing at all.


End file.
